September 2007

Dear I Declare:

I’m flattered that you should bend your rules for me. God is love, which is a logical conclusion based on the idea that if good and evil exist together, then freedom is the reason that evil exists, not because God is evil. Or doesn’t exist. If God was either one (evil or nonexistent), we’d never be having this conversation. Of course this is all my own thinking. I don’t say that anything I say is true. But if evil existed in a vacuum without love … the human race, which evil wants to destroy, would not have ever had a chance. Which sets up a showdown, between good and evil, where good wins, which is precisely what the Bible predicts. If there are errors in the Bible … Christian heretics put them there. And if Jesus is not a threat … why would they bother?

Bless you, I declare. I have been where you are. My intense desire to know and understand reality (after being terrified by hallucinations and finding peace when I resolved God didn’t like these things any more than I did, because his creation did not reflect hatred toward mankind, nature, etc.) has led me to find truth only by assuming this scenario and then that one. God is provable by who he is, but mostly because of who he obviously isn’t. The cosmic drama, conflict will have a conclusion … and I expect it to be geologically spectacular, for one. Based on Zechariah 14, when valleys become mountains and vice versa. Evil destroys, God uses that energy against itself to create.

I’m not going to go into your discussion of God, good, and evil in huge detail because it doesn’t sound to me like you’re looking for a debate (let me know if I’m reading you wrong on this). I would like to start out, though, by saying that you don’t need to couch your words with “I don’t say that anything I say is true.” If you have a reasoned opinion, I think you should come right out and say, “this is what I believe.” We all understand that nobody’s opinion is necessarily true, that’s why it’s worth having these discussions. I guess what I mean is you shouldn’t sound like you’re not proud of your beliefs or if you think they are less than anyone else’s. All reasonable people are equal in this sense.

A brief refutation of your argument — from my standpoint, it appears to rely on “good” and “evil” being metaphysical forces in and of themselves that require balancing. I don’t believe that there is good or evil without human thought, and I don’t think there is any metaphysical requirement for balance of good and evil. So, because I disagree with your premises, I disagree with your argument.